1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to an electrical connector, and more particularly to an electrical connector used for a sheet-like connection member such as a flexible printed circuit or cable (FPC), a flexible flat cable (FFC) and so forth. All of these cables and circuit will be generally referred to as “FPC”.
2. Description of Related Art
A variety of flexible printed circuits are widely used in electronic devices. Various electrical connectors are adapted for connecting corresponding flexible printed circuits. A conventional flexible printed circuit connector comprises an insulating housing, a plurality of electrical contacts received in the insulating housing and an actuator mounted movably on the insulating housing. The actuator moves between a closed position and an open position. When the actuator is in the open position, the flexible printed circuit can insert into the insulating housing freely, when the actuator is in the closed position, the actuator presses the flexible printed circuit so that the flexible printed circuit electrically connects with the electrical contacts.
However, when the actuator is in the closed position, the actuator easily overturns because of a resilient force produced by the electrical contacts, and at present the actuator of the connector is need to be flimsy with development of the flexible printed circuit connector. Problem produced because of the flimsy of the actuator is that the actuator is warped easily when the actuator is in the closed position, thus the flexible printed circuit can't connect with the electrical contacts reliably.
Referring to FIG. 1, Taiwan Pat. Issue No. 532583 discloses a flexible printed circuit connector 1 comprising an insulating housing 2, a plurality of electrical contacts 16 received in the housing 2 for electrically connecting with flexible printed circuit and an actuator 3 mounted movably on the housing 2. The housing 2 defines slots 14 for receiving the electrical contacts 16, a receiving chamber 18 for receiving flexible printed circuit and a pair of blocking slots 13 on opposite laterals of the housing 2. The actuator 3 comprises a pressing portion 32 and blocking portions 24 on opposite sides thereof. The blocking portions 24 comprise blocking arms 26 and the blocking arms 26 comprise first engaging portions 243 and second engaging portions 244. When the actuator is in the closed position, the pressing portion 32 is received in the receiving chamber 18 of the housing and the blocking arms 26 are inserted into the corresponding blocking slots 13 of the housing 2. The first engaging portions 243 and the second engaging portions 244 of the blocking arms 26 are engaging with protrusions (not shown) formed in the blocking slots 13 of the housing 2. Thus when the actuator 3 is in the closed position, the actuator 3 can't overturn and warp under a resilient force of the contacts 16.
However, when the actuator 3 moves to the open position from the closed position, the engaging portions 243, 244 of the blocking arms 26 are easily destroyed because of collision with the protrusions of the blocking slots 13 of the housing 2 and thus using life-span of the actuator 3 is decreased.
Hence, an improved flexible printed circuit connector is required to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art.